Parent Petition for Intentional Tech @ HVRSD

As school districts from LA to NYC take bold steps to curb classroom device use, we applaud Superintendent Treece's August 27, 2026 statement that our district will be: "limiting student technology use in our primary grades", prioritizing "face-to-face interaction, meaningful relationships, and active engagement in learning", and desires "not to have technology do the thinking and problem-solving for [students across all grade levels]."

As parents, we want to encourage Dr. Treece's vision by supporting the development of actionable milestones, including:

Analog-First Learning: Screens down, pencils up! The evidence is clear: reading physical books and writing by hand increases student comprehension and retention, mental focus, and academic performance. Devices, in contrast, have been shown to encourage distraction, multitasking, cognitive fatigue, and anxiety, while disrupting social-emotional learning, relational connection, and sleep. Let’s embrace analog tools as the default, unless a learning objective specifically requires a digital device.

Measure School-Device Screen Time: How many hours per day are students currently spending looking at school-issued screens? Right now, we don’t actually know. To get a complete picture of school-related screen use, we propose following in the footsteps of the LA Unified School District - tracking and measuring all of the time that students spend looking at school-issued screens, with usage data made easily accessible to parents.

A Daily Limit on Certain Categories of Screen Time: As districts like LA, NYC, and others have done, we propose establishing daily time limits for student screen time (excluding courses where the subject matter itself is inherently digital such as: computer science, robotics programming, typing/keyboarding class, etc, and also allowing for extraordinary exceptions on a case-by-case basis). For example:

• PreK–2nd: No screen time.

• Grades 3rd–5th: No more than 30 minutes total per day.

• Middle School (6th–8th): No more than 45 minutes total per day.

• High School (9th–12th): No more than 45 minutes per day, with relevant exceptions.

End Routine Take-Home Chromebooks: In an analog-first ecosystem, homework should be analog by default. Chromebooks should stay at school unless a family requests otherwise, or an exceptional project requires it. Currently, mandatory take-home Chromebooks can function as an educational Trojan horse, bringing open-ended digital distraction into our homes under the mantle of required schoolwork. By mandating screens within the home, the district unintentionally undermines parental authority and displaces essential family time, unstructured time, outdoor time, and the option of screen-free evenings and weekends.

Form a Working Group Within 60 Days: To help turn these goals into formal district policy, we recommend forming a working group comprised of parents, educators, administrators, and outside experts (where available). This group would co-create a detailed pathway forward, and keep us striding toward our milestones in a timely manner.

Please note that these goals, milestones, and limits would not apply to students with an IEP or Section 504 Plan whose accommodations require assistive technology or screen-based tools.

By signing below, you show your support for our district's ongoing progress towards more deliberate technology use, and the implementation of the clear and measurable action steps outlined above.

This petition was created by the "Beyond Screens" circle of HVRSD's ecoPTO and is supported by Hopewell's local chapters of Schools Beyond Screens, and Wait Until 8th Initiative. Contact: Gabe Dominguez & Sonya Cotton (HVRSD parents) at tinyhome@tinyhomemusic.com